Female

June 26, 1767

January 19, 1852

Litchfield, CT

Litchfield, CT

Sarah Pierce was born in Litchfield, Connecticut on June 26, 1767. She was the youngest of Mary Paterson Pierce and John Pierce’s seven children. Sarah’s mother died when she was only three years old. Her father remarried two years later and had three more children with his new wife. The Pierce children were frequently surrounded by highly educated individuals, as John Pierce was heavily involved in education. Sarah Pierce’s step-mother pushed all her children to pursue their education to the fullest extent. Sarah attended a dame school at the age of four or five, which led to her to admire many of her female teachers.

After the passing of her father in 1783, John Pierce Jr. was responsible for the family’s survival. With a step-mother and nine younger siblings, John needed assistance ...from his six younger sisters and pushed Sarah and another one of her sisters to study in New York City for a formal education. John hoped each sister could financially fend for themselves so he could concentrate more on his future and have the opportunity to establish a family of his own. Though John Pierce Jr. felt education was a necessity for his sisters, his views on the extent of education for a female was limited as he felt young women should only need “enough education to be pleasant and intelligent companions,” and he frequently asked his sisters not to read his books he left behind. Sarah felt quite the opposite about education, as she hoped, and eventually did, teach several different topics that were once looked at as subjects only men could learn.

Just as the Pierce family began to get financially stable, their family was struck by another devastating loss, as John Pierce Jr. died in 1788. He was only thirty five. Fortunately for the older women in the family, their education was either complete or nearing completion, allowing them to either find a suitor or teach. For two of Sarah’s sisters, they found happiness in marriage and began to raise a family of their own. For Sarah Pierce, this was never a desire. She was less inclined than her sisters to get married. She would rather spent her days being a role model to young girls and boys and by 1792 she had the formal education to do so. She began teaching girls and boys in her home, and by 1798 the school became so successful that an academy building was built. The Litchfield Female Academy thrived throughout the early 19th century, as thousands of girls and boys received a quality education not found in many other places across the country. Her nephew John Pierce Brace joined the Female Academy in 1814 as a teacher, and became the director in 1827. At that time Sarah stepped down as head of the school, but continued to teach, focusing on her favorite subject – history. Sarah Pierce died in Litchfield on January 19, 1852 and was buried in the West Burying Ground.

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"Miss Pierce had a quiet relish for humor and fun that made her very lenient toward one who never was any special credit to her as a pupil. During the whole of my training under her care, 'with the exception of practicing on the piano, map-drawing, and a little painting, I did little else than play. There was a curious fashion among the girls of helping themselves by guessing, which I practiced so adroitly that, with a few snatches at my books, I slipped through my recitations as a 'tolerably decent scholar. Occasionally my kind teacher wondered how and when my lessons were learned, and complimented me as the 'busiest of all creatures in doing nothing.' Catharine Beecher, Autobiography, correspondence, etc., of Lyman Beecher, D.D by Beecher, Lyman, 1775-1863, Publication date 1864 Accessed ...at https://archive.org/stream/autobiographyco03beecgoog/autobiographyco03beecgoog_djvu.txt May 12, 2023

"Compliment for a Serenade"
When tired with dancing I retired to bed
My drosy eyes with welcome sleep were blest
Me thought my soul of Earth had bid farewell
And now in Paradice had come to dwell
While won'dring what kind angel brought me here
The sound of sweetest music reached my ear
Such as the heavenly hims of Paradice
Play to departed souls who free from vice
Have safe arrived upon that blissful shore
Where hapiness awaits them evermore
--Ye heavenly powers who hear my prayer
Grant me the art to join this heavenly choir
Tis what I never could obtain below
The music ceased and seemed to answer NO.
Sighing I waked the visions disappeared
But pleased I found the heavenly music here.

Poem written to commemorate a serenade at her house.

[Vanderpoel made many changes to this in VI, pp. 220-221] Original at Litchfield Historical Society

“When love and friendship tie the band,
Easy the chain, light the command.”

Poem written on marriage.

Emily Noyes Vanderpoel, Chronicles of a Pioneer School from 1792 to 1833: Being the History of Miss Sarah Pierce and her Litchfield School (1903) p. 220.

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Pierce very frequently entertained Litchfield Law School students and supervised the social events. If displeased by a student's behavior, she would ban him from calling at the house. It was said that "to be denied admission to Miss Sally Pierce's parlor was the deepest disgrace which could befall a young man."